The morning read

Men and women who once attended Wilson Grammar School plan to gather Saturday, and they might swap stories about one of the dark-est eras of Orange County history.

Wilson was the school for Latino kids who lived in La Habra's barrio, a collection of dirt roads and tiny wooden structures built by white landowners to house the families of mostly Mexican American farmhands from the late teens into the 1960s.

Some memories will be bitter. Ray Molina, for instance, could talk about being whipped with a hose for speaking Spanish in school.

Their lives were harsh, their relationships with the white population often derisive. But they endured, living happily and often thriving. And when they reunite, they can talk about how they turned three barrios into a community – a neighborhood known as “the camps.”

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